The West Virginia chemical spill underscores why we need to do more to safeguard our water supply.
By
 |
| The Magic of De-Regulation, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib |
As a
West Virginian, I have one question for you — is coal pollution in your water,
too? The answer might surprise you.
Here in
West Virginia, thousands continue to wonder whether their water is safe after a
recent coal chemical spill just upstream from the state’s largest drinking
water intake.
Over a week after the spill — after the company revealed a second
mysterious chemical leaked into the water supply for 300,000 people — our governor
offered this pearl of wisdom to residents wondering whether to use the water:
“It’s your decision.”
It’s a
crisis, a tragedy, and an outrage. Those of you outside West Virginia may have
seen the news about the spill and assumed nothing like this would ever affect
you or your family. Well, you might be wrong.
The
chemicals in this spill are used to process coal after it’s mined. After the
coal is processed, this witch’s brew of water and chemicals is pumped into old
underground mines or stored behind one of the hundreds of earthen dams that
litter the Appalachian coalfields, some of which are larger than the Hoover
Dam.
The
majority of toxic water pollution comes from coal-fired power plants, making
coal plants the top industrial source of toxic water pollution in our country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA
is currently working on draft protections against some of coal’s toxic water
pollution, but those are under attack from the industry, while other coal water
standards remain outdated and completely inadequate.
Coal
industry chemicals and waste “have tainted hundreds of waterways and
groundwater supplies, spoiling private wells, shutting down fishing and
rendering streams virtually lifeless,” the Associated Press reports.
And
here’s the damning detail from this important AP investigation: “Because these
contaminants are released gradually and in some cases not tracked or regulated,
they attract much less attention than a massive spill such as the recent one in
West Virginia.”
Charleston
isn’t the only major city whose waterway is affected. Here’s another example:
The water supply for Charlotte, North Carolina is being contaminated by coal
ash from Duke Energy’s coal plants, prompting the state to sue the utility.
Every
year, the nation’s coal plants produce 140 million tons of coal ash pollution,
the toxic by-product that remains after the coal is burned. This ash contains
arsenic, selenium, boron, cadmium, mercury, and lead. All that ash has to go
somewhere, so it’s dumped in the backyards of power plants across the nation,
into open-air pits and precarious surface waste ponds.
Many of
these sites lack adequate safeguards, leaving nearby communities at risk from
potential large-scale disasters. This negligence, responsible for Tennessee’s massive coal ash spill in 2008 and other accidents,
contributes to gradual yet equally dangerous contamination as coal ash toxins
seep into drinking water sources or are blown into nearby communities.
Water is
essential for life, so why are we allowing the coal industry to destroy this
critical resource nationwide?
Thanks
to hefty donations, King Coal has numerous elected officials at its beck and
call. Americans are losing access to clean water, but these politicians
continue singing the coal industry’s praises and demanding no enforcement of
clean water standards, while actively fighting against new clean water
protections.
Everyone
has a right to clean water. But in more places than you might think, if you ask
whether there is toxic coal pollution in your water supply, the surprising
answer is yes. It’s time to make sure our water is safe, once and for all.
Mary
Anne Hitt is the Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. BeyondCoal.org Distributed via OtherWords (OtherWords.org)